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Far Cry 3 is awesome

So I've played it for a couple of hours, it unlocked earlier tonight, and it's great. The action is great, the world is well crafted, and the writing and acting is something rarely seen in games (think Vampire TM Bloodlines level). I've spent most of my time walking around, hunting animals and improving my equipment - and I've had great fun so far.

and acting is something rarely seen in games (think Vampire TM Bloodlines level).

Hm. I just checked all the actors listed above the fold on IMDB, and only one (Marco Grazzini) has any previous TV or film voice acting experience. Most of VTM:B's main cast had that experience.

Not judging, as I have yet to play the game, but most people who only do traditional acting or videogames are fairly poor with voice work. That includes A-list celebs who do the occasional animated film. There are exceptions, but they're rare.

The world is open but the story is linear. And from what I've seen (only a few important NPCs) the animation, face expressions and voice acting all work superbly together. I don't know if the quality level will hold and if the story itself will be any good (not only the acting and dialogues) but so far I'm very impressed.

I've already had a few spontaneous microstories myself.

Hunting goats with a looted unsilenced AK47 my shots were heard not only by other goats but also by a nearby pirate patrol. I hid in the grass and tried to finish my hunt silently with a machete but the goats used the distraction to run for their lives.

Driving a jeep over a cliff I didn't see and landing on the roof right in the middle of a slaver convoy. I stumbled from the burning car right in front of the slavers who opened fire. Quickly a healing injection and duck behind the car that might explode any second.

Seeing enemies through walls can be turned off; I hated that too. It's called crosshair tagging or somesuch. It would be nice to turn off the minimap as well, or at least bits of it, since having loot crates show up seems a bit generous.

My best random event so far was sneaking through underbrush towards two pirates who suddenly turned to face me and shouted "SHIT!!... KOMODO DRAGONS" before firing their weapons at a point somewhere behind me. All three of us got eaten.

The interface is incredibly awful and the driving feels much worse than in FC2.
I can't stand the minimap, it's showing too much - loot chests, plants, even the enemy position! Speaking of plants, I hate their highlighting.
For the first time ever I had to increase the FOV to combat headaches. Default was 73 and I took it to 90. I don't mind games with lower FOVs but here the interface prompts are way too far inside the screen. Tunnel vision to the max! Unfortunately all cutscenes and interactive stuff like driving or climbing revert to the default FOV.
I also can't stand the constant reminders of what my objective is. Every 60 seconds I'm reminded of what I have to do!
Coming from Far Cry 2, the shit AC style forced objectives are horrific. Don't get detected, use only weapon X to do Y, don't leave the mission area - are you fucking shitting me?...

People hoping for less annoying patrols are in for a disappointment. They're just as annoying, with the added "bonus" of reinforcements coming over and over again. It seems there is less distance between outposts and there are foot patrols too. So they hear combat or just stumble into it - and that goes for animals too. FC2 had more clearly defined action bubbles. I guess the intention was to have less downtime but I don't like it.

People hoping for less annoying patrols are in for a disappointment. They're just as annoying, with the added "bonus" of reinforcements coming over and over again. It seems there is less distance between outposts and there are foot patrols too. So they hear combat or just stumble into it - and that goes for animals too. FC2 had more clearly defined action bubbles. I guess the intention was to have less downtime but I don't like it.

The atrocious patrols in FC2 was the reason I stopped playing that game. That they have not fixed it is incredibly dissapointing.

Using the latest NVIDIA beta's which have SLi profile and enhancements for FC3 I still can't find a sweet spot.

If I turn everything up to 11, I get about 45ish FPS with dips and peaks which is fair enough I guess.

If I then switch the VSync to half refresh I get a steady 30FPS, but the game still doesn't feel or look smooth to my eyes. Mouse input feels oddly laggy even with the frame buffer and acceleration turned off and the game is giving me a bit of a headache.

Oddly, even If I start turning options down, I still maintain a solid 30 (rising to 55-60FPS with VSync at full) but again, the game still feels spiky and uncomfortable in its rendering.

Most gaming sites seem to be quite enthusiastic about Far Cry 3. However, there are also some not necessarily gaming focussed websites whose writers perhaps bring a wider view - perhaps! - and are somewhat more critical, like Edward Smith writing for the International Business Times. He concludes that 'Far Cry 3 is a wonderful first-person shooter; colourful, quick and satisfying violent. Flaws and all, it's a game that has to be played' - but also points out that the narrative itself isn't quite as interesting as suggested:

At the start, Jason can't face killing, but 10 minutes in the player's hands and he's a consummate murderer. Once you rack up your first 20 bodies, Jason's transformation from boy to man has come full-circle and there's not much left for him to do. That leaves a lot of narrative slack, which the rest of Far Cry 3 doesn't pick up. (...)

There are still standout moments. Jason's deteriorating relationship with his friends feels familiar, and the hallucination sequences which psychedelically dredge up his past are superb. In short though, the writing in Far Cry 3 feels uncertain and gutless, like it's stepping around too many toes. It makes cursory attacks on computer game conventions, capitalism and youth culture, but they feel obvious and teenage rather than truly biting. The whole script needs more punch; the writing clearly has subversive ambitions, but they're not the best suited to a big shooter franchise like Far Cry 3 which at the end of the day, aims to be a crowd-pleaser. (...)

The exact same can be said for the game's script, which has highfalutin ideas but no concrete sense of how to transmit them. It's angry at...something, but not sure what, like a first-year student who's read the preface of a few social science textbooks. Far Cry 3's literature feels uncoordinated and scattergun, never coming together and managing little except a few snarky, ill-informed remarks.

Anyway, and interesting game. I quite enjoyed Far Cry 2, though not so much the first iteration with its silly mutants. I'll probably end up putting this on the Steam wishlist and get it while the price has dropped a bit.

"He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free". ~ Luke 4:18

Looks like in the last paragraph he's talking about the writing in the database which is hilarious and obviously written by an older, somewhat bitter, conservative and sarcastic NPC you will meet later. That's another thing that surprised me positively. Even the entries for animals are fun to read.

And the "subversive ambitions" in the writing are actually what I really like and wanted to praise in this thread, mainstream shooter or not.